Showing posts with label sasuke. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sasuke. Show all posts

Saturday, November 2, 2013

Central California Ninja Warrior Training Course Fall Invite 13' Results: Quest for Total Victory 4 and Catch the Koi

     It has been a week now since the Fall Invite for 2013 has passed. It was a truly inspiring an amazing event. I feel blessed to have such an amazing turnout for this event which I believe is one of the largest ninja warrior competitor turnouts on the west coast and matches with some of the best from the East Coast. We went from 27 people in our first seasonal invite (Summer) to 55 people in 3 months for our Fall Invite!

     I think it goes to show if you build something for people, without yourself in mind, and for the people you know who are passionate about it. It will be successful and turn out for the best. I hope we continue to grow, continue to build, bring together, and strengthen the ninja warrior community in our events and bring up more and better designed backyard training grounds across America.
     
     So I know you’re wondering! What is all the stats? Who won? Who lost? How did everyone do? Well here it is the complete breakdown of the 2 Day event and our Quest for Total Victory 4!
Their may be some mistakes, if so please email me or message on facebook. It took me about 3-4hs to put this together.

Quest for Total Victory Results (Fall Invite video playlist here)

Stage 1: Goal-Complete 6 obstacles in 120 seconds.
  1. Brian Kretsch - Completed: 65 seconds
  2. Thaddeus Robeck - Completed: 76 seconds
  3. Alex Jolly - Completed: 80 seconds
  4. David Campbell - Completed: 88 seconds
  5.  Alan Connealy - Completed: 94 seconds
  6. Jason Huewe - Completed: 100 seconds(just for kicks, not for competition)
  7. Tom Carpenter - Completed: 104 seconds
  8. Alex Krumland - Completed: 105 seconds
  9. Travis Weinand - Completed: 112 seconds
  10. Yen Chen - Timed out: @ Warped Wall
  11. Chris Yang - Timed out: @ Warped Wall
  12. Andres De la Rosa - Timed out: @ Warped Wall
  13. Mike Bernardo - Timed out: @ Warped Wall
  14. Aryan Guenther: Timed out: @ Warped Wall
  15. Scott VanBuskirk - Timed out: @ Warped Wall
  16. Gabe Hurtado - Time out: Warped Wall
  17. Ryan Wakefield - Timed out: Warped Wall
  18. James Paugh - Timed out: Warped Wall
  19. Ricky Chen - Timed out: Warped Wall
  20. Kyle Kim - Timed out: Warped Wall
  21. Timmy Do - Failed: Half Pipe Attack! at 32s
  22. Cristopher vom Kohlen- Failed: Half Pipe Attack! @45s
  23. James Paugh - Failed: Half Pipe Attack! @ 45s
  24. Jacob Ellis - Failed: Half Pipe Attack! @ 45s
  25. Emmanuel Lopez - Failed: Half Pipe Attack! @ 45s 
  26. Jamil Antoine - Failed: Half Pipe Attack! @ 46s
  27. Chris Luera - Failed: Half Pipe Attack! @ 66s
  28. Micheal Mori - Failed: Half Pipe Attack! @ 51s 
  29. Robert Ing - Failed: Half Pipe Attack! @ 52s
  30. Lowe Rodd - Failed: Half Pipe Attack! @ 56s
  31. Kelvin Antoine - Failed at Half Pipe Attack! @ 60s
  32.      (there was confusion on Kelvin's run as to where the landing area was. Due to my lack of communication Kelvin thought the crash pad was the landing area. He was later given a redo run but did not do as well his second time around. Sorry G-pa! )
  33. David Mytyk - Failed: Half Pipe Attack! @ 75s
  34. Andrew Thompson - Failed: Half Pipe Attack! @ 84s
  35. Corinne Kohlen - Failed: Half Pipe Attack! @ 88s
  36. Mira Manickam  - Failed: Half Pipe Attack! @ 97s
  37. Alvaro Campos - Failed: Nunchuck Swing to Cargo Net @ 18s
  38. Riley Kane - Failed: Nunchuck Swing to Cargo Net @ 24s
  39. Tyler Ruiz - Failed: Nunchuck Swing to Cargo Net @ 26s
  40. Chris Baum - Failed: Nunchuck Swing to Cargo Net @ 27s
  41. Richard Mori - Failed: Nunchuck Swing to Cargo Net @ 31s
  42. Jeff Fox - Failed: Nunchuck Swing to Cargo Net @32s
  43. David Mori- Failed: Nunchuck Swing to Cargo Net @ 33s
  44. Greg Fox - Failed: Nunchuck Swing to Cargo Net @ 34s
  45. Chad Pickens - Failed: Nunchuck Swing to Cargo Net @ 35s
  46. Hugo Hurtion - Failed: Nunchuck Swing to Cargo Net @ 37s
  47. Kirk Johannns - Failed: Nunchuck Swing to Cargo Net @ 52s
  48. Joseph Range - Failed: Nunchuck Swing to Cargo Net @ 52s
  49. Michael Mori- Failed: Nunchuck Swing to Cargo Net @ 56s
  50. Barry Betha - Failed: Quintuple Steps @35s
  51. Ryan Black - Failed: Quintuple Steps @ 41s
Matthew Garcia: Injured an old injury before competition during open training and did not compete.
Steve Herbalman: Did not show.
Brad Murasco: Did not show.



Stage 2: Goal - Complete 5 obstacles in 80 seconds

  1. Brian Kretsch - Completed:  55 seconds 
  2. Thaddeus Robeck - Completed:  61 seconds
  3. David Campbell - Failed: Metal Jump @ 73s
  4. Alex Krumland - Failed: Double Salmon Ladder (second beam-2nd rung) @ 43s
  5. Travis Weinland - Failed: Double Salmon Ladder (second beam-1st rung) @ 36s
  6. Tom Carpenter - Failed: Double Salmon Ladder @ 24s
  7. Alex Jolly - Was not present.
  8.  Alan Connealy - Was not present.

Stage 3: Goal - Finish 6 obstacles. No time limit. Max rest between 30s.


  1. Thaddeus Robeck - Failed:  Crazy Cliffhanger @ 3rd-4th ledge transfer
  2. Brian Kretsch - Failed: Crazy Cliffhanger @ 2nd ledge


Catch the Koi (135s to complete)

  1. Yen Chen: Finished @ 122s
  2. David Campbell: Finished @ 124s
  3. Mike Bernardo: Completed in: 153s
  4. Robert Ing: Completed in: 257s
  5. Brian Kretsch: Stoped @ Climbing Wall
  6. Travis Weinand: Stopped @ Pegboard
  7. Chris Luera: Stopped @ Cliff Hanger
  8. Jason Huewe: Stopped @ Baumbay Grasper

Friday, October 25, 2013

Roster for the: Central California Ninja Warrior Training Course - Fall Invite Event 2013

An here we are our largest competition yet with a full 54 competitors coming into Stage 1 of the 2 day event. Please visit our online live stream as we broadcast our tournament live at
CCNWTC: LIVE BROADCAST
Get ready to go on a Quest for Total Victory 4!
  1. Alex Jolly
  2. Matthew Garcia
  3. Riley Kane
  4. Steve Herbalman
  5. Tyler Ruiz
  6. Aryan Guenther
  7. Alvaro Campos
  8. Chris Luera
  9. Hugo Hurtion
  10. Lowe Rodd
  11. Tom Carpenter
  12. Andrew Thompson
  13. Brad Murasco
  14. Corinne Kohlen
  15. Gabe Hurtado
  16. Jeff Fox
  17. Micheal Mori
  18. Scott VanBuskirk
  19. Alex Krumland
  20. Cristopher vom Kohlen
  21. Barry Betha
  22. Kirk Johannns
  23. Robert Ing
  24. Jamil Antoine
  25. Emmanuel Lopez
  26. Jacob Ellis
  27. David Mytyk
  28. Richard Mori
  29. James Paugh
  30. Greg Fox
  31. David Mori
  32. Forest Grey Chang-Turpen
  33. Kelvin Antoine
  34. Ryan Wakefield
  35. Travis Weinland
  36. Mike Bernardo
  37. Ryan Black
  38. Timmy Do
  39. Chad Pickens
  40. Chris Baum
  41. Joseph Range
  42. Mira Manickam
  43. Ricky Chen
  44. Kyle Kim
  45. Yen Chen
  46. Chris Yang
  47. Andres De la Rosa
  48. David Campbell (coming sunday)
  49. Brian Kretsch (coming sunday)
  50. Thaddeus Robeck
and our Half-Day(mini-ninjas) who are competing in just stage one are!!
   M51. Alex Kexel 
   M52. Alan Connealy
   M53. Ali Leitheiser
   M54. Grant Connealy

I'm looking forward to meeting all my good ninja friends and the new ones. Lets have some fun and play safe!

Monday, September 9, 2013

And here we go!



Referring to our next big build and not The Dark Knight of course. This has been in the plans for quite sometime and a lot of request have come in for us to build this obstacle since June and they ran the Vegas finals for the show. As you may have seen ALOT of ninjas were taken out by this beast. Some say it was too hard....but honestly if it wasn't hard why would should we not train for it.
Truthfully since year 1 ANW has tried building the Spider Jump, being renamed the Spider Walk. Cause it was literally a walk through. Pretty darn easy obstacle and the American version has been pretty weak compared to Sasuke's original Spider Jump obstacle. This year, I think they got it right! Even the year before they were generous and put the trampoline fairly close to the opening and now they got it right!! I've also been hearing from the testers and my other ninja buddies that they made it a bit harder as well and made the inside width harder.

So be pre-paired to get your training on, through multiple sketches, comparisons, and pieces of paper I got down our first scaled draft sketch of the Spider Climb. This will be a 1 on 1 scale of the show. An will also be the courses single largest and most expensive obstacle to build. With an estimate of just over $1,500 in materials.


We are working hard and looking for a Veteran Sponsor, for this build which would make this obstalce possible. Our goal is to have it built in time for our next Seasonal Open Invite in October. Whish us luck. Their will be a build package for this obstacle a few weeks after it is finished for any company/ backyard ninja that wants to build a full scale one.

Saturday, September 7, 2013

What is a Ninjaship?


 Have you ever had a moment where you thought, wow I think that person is really cool or has some great ideas. If I could team up with him/her we could do some really amazing things!
An that together your ideas and values are worth so much more and have a bigger impact than when separated. Well in a nut shell that is the essence of what a Ninjaship is.

It is a term I came to create meaning a relationship between two people/ two companies to help expand and benefit each others training and goals relating to Ninja Warrior...

And it has begun.

I have started talks and working with a few very select and established brands/companies to help bring together the prominent sports in Ninja Warrior. To promote, encourage, and help any person in their training while promoting that venture and help raise awareness as to where they can train for such sports. Better improving themselves and their training.

This is an exciting time as we are continuing to grow and slowly tieing the communities that partake in Ninja warrior together as one. I'm excited to see this idea become reality.

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Hylete Performance Apparel is for the Ninjas!

We are all ways trying to do our best to represent the Ninja Warrior community and keep the backyard courses growing throughout the US. We also want to help improve your training through workout video and techniques, and everything else involved(your health, recovery, and apparel.) Well we just partnered up with Hylete Performance Apparel and have some exciting news for you.


I personally just bought a pair of these stealthy Hylete ninja shorts and will give you guys my honest 2 cents on them, when I get them.
If your just hearing of them, Hylete makes some pretty amazing apparel for working out and training in. Super comfy and they move so well with your body. An now as one of the CCNWTCs official sponsors for our next Seasonal Open Invite Training Day and Competition coming in October they are sending out $200 in gift cards that we'll be using as prizes and super discounts for only those that come to the event.!




On top of their sponsorship of the event we are excited to announce that we are now Powered by Hylete facility. As a Powered by Hylete facility, all our ninjas(ones that visit or contribute to the CCNWTC) will now receive 20% off for life at HYLETE.com. And for everyone else check out Hylete.com and their cool gear.

 PBHXTNRGK  this is a promo code they gave me
to give you for an additional 25% off your first purchase! How is that
for a pretty sweet discount!

Please show them your support as this isn't a shameless promotion. I always do my best to keep things real with all of you. No BS. My goal is to continually support our community and get you really cool stuff at good prices and through that effort Hylete will in return help support the CCNWTC by giving us 10% of sales from any of our registered ninjas.  Remember to register at the link above to get started and thanks again for everyone's support.

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Time for some good laughs

So we have been posting alot of new content on the blog and getting alot of info out their but I want to make sure everyone knows its not all business and hard work you have to have fun as well! So here is a few videos and photos of just for fun Ninja Warrior shenanigans!!


and to show you some of us are not all serious ^0^
Mike Bernardo primal scream! minus the axe :/

William Brown going SPARTA!! on Drew Dreschel's butt.
Andres "the careful" ninja is spotting ;)

James Sclar his beard keeps getting bigger and crazier, and arguably now the most epic beard in Vegas!
Photos were taken by fellow ninja: Jenya Kushnir 

A few weeks ago myself, Yen Chen, Eric Cho, Dan Chen, and Chris Yang went on a camping trip to Yosemite at Camp 4 and had some ninja shenanigans at the Swinging Bridge. Its about a 9m video.

Sunday, August 25, 2013

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

CCNWTC and Crew is on KSEE 24 News

I was expecting a good video from our local news channel KSEE 24 News being interviewed by reporter Angela Greenwood. This video came out amazing and the editing I thought was extremely good. I hope KSEE can come out again sometime and dive a little more into what I do here at the course besides training. Big shout out and thanks to Thad Robeck, Chris Yang, and Genesis(aka Goku Parkour)



If anyone is interested in training at the course feel free to contact me. It is a private facility but sometimes its opened in limited amounts. I am also planing on holding my SasukeFit classes coming soon if your interested in gaining strength and conditioning to better prepare you for Ninja Warrior along with some specific obstacle training. Please email ccnwtc@gmail.com

 As of now I have started a new semester at Willow International and am working towards my bachelors in engineering. School is taking priority over new construction and training so some of these updates will slow down. Take care everyone I'll chime in soon. You can also LIKE our Facebook page in the meantime.

Monday, August 12, 2013

CCNWTC Exsposure and Ninja Warrior Training / Workouts


So this past week alot of things have happened. Some big things are in store for our humble course. I had a two hour interview at the beginning of last week with a freelance journalist. Who is going to write my story and the story of the course. I'm excited to see how it turns out!
Plus one of our local news stations KSEE 24 and Angela Greenwood came out for a couple hours to record what we do here and interview about training for Ninja Warrior, CrossFit, and how it all came to be. It will be edited into a video a couple minutes long as part of a special on cool things that are happening in the Central Valley people may not know about. The piece should be out sometime mid August.


Plus now that we have a decent set up I'm going to be releasing more training videos and workout videos to help improve your strength, conditioning and mental state while trying to run obstacles. Heres two videos that we just released and fee free to subscribe to us on Youtube. Thanks!

Training

 


Warped Wall Workout

 

Saturday, July 13, 2013

Central California's Ninja Warrior Stage 3 aka "the Gauntlet"

Solid foundation
So I've been really busy this past week and will be into the next 2 as I continue to construct and build our Ninja Warriors Stage 3 section. Known as the Gauntlet. Its coming along and on schedule. I've put myself through hell working on construction by myself as I resurrect this beast! 19 feet long and 39 feet wide from 10-12'ft high.
Tomorrow I should be finishing up the last bits. Adding a few more pieces of lumber and concreting in 6 posts. I already have all/most of the materials to install and build the Rumbling Dice. I will be working on that and plan on going out Tuesday/Wednesday to make a large purchase for most of the materials I need to build these obstacles. Most of which will range from 12 to 20'ft long and be hanging from the rafters. Here is a few photos and video we released over the past week on our Facebook. If you haven't already like our page and get updates faster!

1,580lbs of concrete for our supporting posts

I think I'll it the sanctuary!

A mans tools for getting through 2ft of hard-pan

Its THIS big!

Starting the day off with a refreshed beginning

Almost their! Raising the left wing.

Angled beams for support of the 16' arms

This video talks about design and how things will be laid out. Not interesting if your not into that.

Cool view of some of the crazy things I did to build this.
A short video about recent progress and a funny challenge to ANW6

Saturday, July 6, 2013

Past 2 weeks of building and shenanigans on the Ninja Warrior Course

Sorry it has been a long time since I last updated on the progress of the training course! Things are moving by so fast. Last week we had our second local competition which I will include a video of that down farther in the post. We began "prettying up" the course and using the black and green koi theme on the Koi ladder through the course. We finished the Half Pipe Attack! and I'm pretty stoked to think(I do think) that this is the first near size replica of the HPA built in a backyard course.
Now we set plans and invites out to our big Invite Open Training Day at the CCNWTC and have begun the construction of our new mega expansion nicknamed The Gauntlet. Alright here we go!!


Half Pipe Attack Construction

So just before our second local competition I was hard at work finishing up the Half Pipe Attack! It took practically the rest of all my plywood and pre-cut lumber. I spent 1 week y myself building this little beast and taking footage/photos of parts of her construction. The weather started getting really hot this week. Here's come photos and clips from her constructions. Blueprints....eeeh maybe. We'll see.



New Legendary Obstacle. The Summers Shuffle.


This wicked upper body unstable crimp obstacle is from the pits of hell. The unknown child of the vertical limit and unstable bridge birthed into a beautiful but ever deadly ninja killer. Inspired by the man, the legendary 3rd stage garage course ninja Shaun Summers! Trust me its a beast, in the video below its not properly installed but will sill kick anyone's ass. In a couple of weeks its home will be set up.


June 29th: Quest for TOTAL Victory 2

Our second local competition at the course went down. This time we had quiet a few more people show up. Including about 5 guys from the local Central Valley Parkour, 4 crossfitters from my gym. CrossFit FTF, 2 skateboarders, and myself. A total of 12. Had a good vibe everyone was excited and a bit nervous.
No one was allowed to touch the course, we had them start fresh and in random order with those who have ran it before as the last to run the course.

We had quite a few slips, some face slams on the quintuple steps and for once on the warped wall saw someone fall face first on it when his feet slipped out from under him. Pretty crazy.
Only 2 made it clean through stage 1. Another would of if he didn't grab a off bounds area of the course. Me? I grazed my foot on the ground coming out of the Half Pipe Attack and didn't know it. Made it up the Warped Wall in one fell swoop and placed the fastest time when they announce I was DQ for touching the ground. Damn! that sucked haha but we had alot of fun. Ended up running out of time and didn't get to do stage 2. Everyone agreed to get ready for the big one coming up late July!

Course Walk-through. Like they do on the show when your brought on.

You wont see me in this video except for the intro. Our GoPro crapped out in the 100 degree heat and cut off right before my run lol nice!


MOAR PAINT!!

I joke that our course(a girl) found make up and started prettying herself up lol
I decided to bust out the 22 sheets of Masonite I have had in reserve for the past 4yrs and put it to good use. Painted it up and gave our 3 large obstacles a make over. The Warped Wall, the Balance Tank, and the Half Pipe Attack. Now the course is taking on an identiy the Koi fish leading you through the course as to where to go next. Man I think were going to need to make some t-shirts now!



The CCNWTC Invite Open Training Day and BBQ

I've been waiting to hold this event for almost a year now and it will fall on the 1yr anniversary of the ninja warrior training course since I started breaking it down from its Mini Mega Skateboard ramp days. I am  inviting alot of my CrossFit and Ninja Warrior buddies within a couple states. Were excepting no more than 50 ninjas to come and have fun all day from 8am to sunset training practicing, we"ll have a fun mini competition, and an amazing BBQ!
I am working in full gear and build mode! Building measuring cutting not only to finish our next major expansion The Gauntlet(which I will go over soon) but to build shade out in the acres cause its 100+ degrees outside with no shade and even the best of ninjas aren't going to last long in that weather.
Alot of planning is going into this event to make sure everything goes well and everyone has fun!


The Gauntlet. A Epic Expansion. 07/06/2013

We made a point to focus on stage 1 type obstacles where we first started. The logic was you need to get past the first stage before you get to any of those upper body crazy obstacle. So why build them right off the bat. Start off with the basics and once you have a decent Stage 1 built, then begin on your 2nd and 3rd stage.
Well we finished the majority of our stage 1. Now we begin on really the first expansion we've needed to do. The gauntlet is a massive structure that will house 8 stationary stage 3 obstacles and one central hanging area that will have over 20 interchangeable hanging obstacles inside of it. With recent donations from local competitions, visits, and now donations from the upcoming event we are able to fund this $500+ expansion!
We just made our first purchase and will probably be making another 1 or two back to Home Depot to finish this project. When finished it will be almost 40ft wide an average of 10ft high and 20ft long. It will take up and 800 sqft area of our backyard. Here is a few pics from its recent progress.

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

The Assembly of a Interchangeable Salmon Ladder. The IC-SL

As you see I released another video series. This time on the construction of a Salmon ladder that can easily change gaps and distances between rungs with no effort. Its an awesome design and an idea/ feature presented from the Koi Ladder.
The series runs 20m long. If you want to see the finished product and aren't interested in the construction just skip to the 4th video.


I was however presented with quite a challenge though. After my first mini test I knew the spacers in the design were weak and would need reinforcing. So I thought up a faceplate design and tested that as you will see in the 4th video. It was good for a little while but couldn't withstand the brutal impact and the ladder itself started to split and crack.
So are we going to trash it?! Nope no need. We have an excellent design just not a strong enough materials. If it was built from composite wood decking it be fine and good. Cost a bit more to make but wouldn't still keep with the original design.
or
You can make it out of wood but would have to ad pins through the rungs and sidewalls of the ladder. This is so the pin takes the force of the inplace and not the weak wood. Which is undoubtedly less stronger then metal. You just give up a little of the design having to remove and insert a pit every time you wish to switch or move rungs. Hopefully end of this week, beginning of next I will have the two blueprints up and available to use.

In the meantime were working on a new obstacle that is massive! and will devour most of are lumber. That and pre-pairing to support all our ninjas in Vegas. Finals are coming up this June 21st!

Sunday, June 9, 2013

The Interchangeable Salmon Ladder begins: Part 2


So a few days later I put a little paint on to make it stand out and go to install this new little beast for its first test runs and make sure it can stand the abuse.

Things I like about this design so far.
  1. It can be carried and transported, each beam weighs about 12-15lbs(w rungs) so if you want to take it to a friends and strap/screw it down you can.
  2. The rungs are straight forward and simple to construct, therefore easier to replace if broken.
  3. Varied gap distances can be changed in a matter of seconds weather you want to make a 6", 12", 18" or 36" gap! :o


It was about 90+ degrees out when I first test the ICSL. All rungs were set to a 12" gap. An the bar felt about 100 degrees hot on touching it. If you watch the video you see after the my first leap I fail me second this is due to a flaw in the current design.


The 4" spaces inbetween rungs were splitting due to the pressure when swinging, leaping, and landing on the . rung.  This was causing the  rungs to slip and actually drop about 1-2" and sliding out. Not good! So I've come up with a new modification to add to the design to make it stronger and hopefully should do the trick. I will need to cut all new rungs though :/ Thank God they are all fairly easy to make though unlike the Koi Rungs.

The Interchangeable Salmon Ladder begins

Draft dimensions and pre-cut photo
Yes another NEW version of the salmon ladder. This was a inspiration from the Koi Ladder and its engineering. I saw the ability to easily exchange it rungs in and out an wanted to convey that into a traditional Salmon Ladder type. So came the Interchangeable Salmon Ladder (ICSL) This design is built off the traditional dimensions and measurements of the ladder except it rungs are easily removable. They can be slid in and out to make any sort of combination of gaps in 6" increments in under a minute! This is simply done with good design and engineering. Here are a few progressive photos from its build. I will be making this ladders blueprints available and a video series will be put out on its steps of construction before the end of June.


Into partial construction of one of the beams
 
Top view of the new ICSL
The ICSL with a few rungs in

Thursday, May 30, 2013

Barrel Roll is Complete

Barrel Roll Walk Through/ Progression/ Testing

Surprising enough this is what I think is the first true full size Barrel Roll I've seen built. If you can find another I would love to see it. Just place the link in the comments below. Heres a walk through and basic explanation of it. Its not 100% complete in this video yet.

In this video I have two clips of my testing the Barrel Roll. One without the new 6ft walk out platform and the second clip with the new platform. I added this in cause the total length of the rolling barrel would be too long and speed would be to great towards the end. Now you have about 16ft of rolling space.


 Today was a recover and maintenance day. Thad came and new arrival Tyler Perry came to help with week whacking and moving wood and debris off the ground. We were clearing out about 20ft in all directions and racking all of it up. Alot of work about 3hrs in we called it a day(finished about 90%) and here in this video is some fun things that ensued soon after ;)

Saturday, May 4, 2013

Pre-pairing for Denver Region in American Ninja Warrior


So its about two weeks out till Denver, CO has their turn at the ANW5. Normally I wouldn't be able to make this kind of trip but with some help from the people in my life and the CrossFit box I work out of, they are helping raise money for my trip and I do not want to disappoint! So Denver has a different elevation, a bit higher than where I'm use to coming from Central California. How is the best way to train and pre-pair my body for that elevation? Here it is...

 At higher elevation there is less pressure. Less pressure to force the oxygen into your lungs and system so the build up of acid in your muscles will be quicker. You will feel more tired and wont be able to perform as long as your use too. Plus the course takes about 1 to 2 minutes to complete. So I'm going to give you a few tips here on how to help charge your system for the course.


Condition:

There are many great ways to do conditioning. CrossFit being one of them, but I'm not here to tote for CrossFit. The best way to get your body conditioned, in a short amount of time is to help reduce the speed at which the acid begins to build by doing Interval Training.

  • Running or rowing: 1 minute on, 1 minute off. For 6 to 10 rounds. Give your MAX effort for that 1 minute and then rest 1 minute. If you can do this well without getting tired to much (or without seeing a decrease in your average round) decrease your rest time by 10-15 seconds. 
  • For more specific training I suggest going TABATA. This type of training can be applied to pullups, bar holds, box jumps, and any other type of movement you can perform on the course. *TABATA is a very specific format of working out. 20s of max effort work, followed by 10s of rest, do 8 rounds of that one movement and then move to the next. Usually you see TABATA is grouped with 4 movements* 
  • Here is a workout I called "TABATA Bing" that you can try.
    Post your total # of reps in the comments:
         Rowing (count total meters)
         Pullups(kipping allowed)
         Back Squats at 95lbs
         Deadlift Hold w/ Fat Bar at 155lbs (count only seconds held. after bar drops do not pick it back up till        your next set)

 This type of conditioning will help train your body for that 1-2 minutes of running the course. Keeping your muscles from tiring too soon, cramping up, and keeping your heart rate down. PLUS drink lots of water!!

Eating:

We all know diet is a huge part of how we perform! I just wanted to let you on to a recent scientific study found about Spinach.  It is more of super food than we actually knew, no its not all the iron in it! An also Creatine is a big part of buffering your system to prevent muscle fatigue.
  • Researches have found that eating a minimum of 3 cups(or about 300g) a day for 3 days can increase your cells ability to take in oxygen by 3-5% which is massive in such a short period of time! Translated it will allow you to take in less oxygen for the same results and you will become not as tired as quickly during physical activity.
  • Here is an article written about the study if you want to read more into it: http://www.naturalnews.com/031427_spinach_muscles.html this link also contains some of the original study sources.
  • Creatine Monohydrate, one of the most research supplements out there and proven. What it can do for you will increase that amount of times you can give your max effort. More explosive jumps, longer grip hold, and so on.
  • Take 5 grams twice a day. Morning and night or 30 minutes before a workout and with a post workout shake.
    If you keep this up your system should have a larger amount of stored creatine needed to help give you an extra edge.

How does Canam Productions for American Ninja Warrior choose submission?

I know I wondered this when I thought I put out a killer video for this season 5 of ANW. I talked to one of the casting agents at Canam and asked, "Why was my video not chosen? Was there something wrong or didn't include? Is there something I should be marketing myself more towards?" and this is the response I got.

Paraphrasing here: "Jason we looked through every single video and for your region there was alot. Somewhere around 2000 and yours was up there among the best we picked. You had a really good video so we picked it among others and then we gave it to the producer. The producer looks over the videos and tells us which ones he wants. I'm sorry" I asked if they knew what kind of things he looks for. I just got a blank answer and saying that they don't really know.

So I was sorta shocked to hear that my video was held very high, felt honored to but didn't get picked. But as was said its a two step process. The main casting agents(Canam) do simply that cast out for potential contestants for the show. However it is not their decision who gets on, it is fully up to the Producer and whatever personality or skills hes looking for to qualify those top 100+ invites to the show.
Honestly I should have already known this seeing its exactly how it works in the walk on spots. They film around and the producers picks who he would like out of the line.

After I talked about this I asked if there was any possibly way I could get an invite to Denver? I was told it would be a really hard region to get an invite in but I did have a good video. Its just the producer rejected my video once what will keep him from doing it again? So they put my video in at the pot of videos for the Denver region. From what I was just told today Canam is finishing their call backs next week. I'll hang on tight and see if it all comes through. If not?
Its alright, I'm going to go for a walk on too so lets see how this all plays out!
Train hard my friends and if your not already from that region or high of elevation start conditioning and acclimating yourself to that environment.
PS: Elevation masks wont help. They will simply allow you to burn more calories because your taking in less oxygen. You need to increase oxygen intake not decrease it!